HELPING TO UNITE BY GENERATING MENTAL EMPOWERMENT INK
"Creative Minds, Changing Lives"
YOUTH OUTREACH
YOUTH OUTREACH
The statistics below show us why more advocacy and education is needed to help our youth. It's time to unite as one and use YOUR voices to help the generation of tomorrow, TODAY!
BULLYING FACTS (resource, www.dosomething.org):
- Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year.
- Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.
- 17% of American students report being bullied 2 to 3 times a month or more within a school semester.
- 1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4% of the time.
- By age 14 less than 30% of boys and 40% of girls will talk to their peers about bullying.
YOUTH SUICIDE FACTS (resource, www.jasonfoundation.com):
- Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for ages 10-24. (2013 CDC WISQARS)
- Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for college-age youth and ages 12-18. (2013 CDC WISQARS)
- More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED.
- Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12.
- Four out of Five teens who attempt suicide have given clear warning signs
- The Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBS) is a survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that includes national, state, and local school-based representative samples of 9th through 12th grade students. The purpose is to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth in the United States.
- The surveys are conducted every two years to determine the prevalence of these health risk behaviors. Behaviors that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles and those that indicate possible depression and/or suicidal ideation are included.
TEEN MENTAL HEALTH FACTS (resource, _http://www.cdc.gov/features/childrensmentalhealth/)
The following are key findings from this report about mental disorders among children aged 3–17 years:
- Millions of American children live with depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, Tourette syndrome or a host of other mental health issues.
- ADHD was the most prevalent current diagnosis among children aged 3–17 years.
- The number of children with a mental disorder increased with age, with the exception of autism spectrum disorders, which was highest among 6 to 11 year old children.
- Boys were more likely than girls to have ADHD, behavioral or conduct problems, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, Tourette syndrome, and cigarette dependence.
- Adolescent boys aged 12–17 years were more likely than girls to die by suicide.
- Adolescent girls were more likely than boys to have depression or an alcohol use disorder.
- Data collected from a variety of data sources between the years 2005-2011 show:
- Children aged 3-17 years currently had:
- ADHD (6.8%)
- Behavioral or conduct problems (3.5%)
- Anxiety (3.0%)
- Depression (2.1%)
- Autism spectrum disorders (1.1%)
- Tourette syndrome (0.2%) (among children aged 6–17 years)
- Adolescents aged 12–17 years had:
- Illicit drug use disorder in the past year (4.7%)
- Alcohol use disorder in the past year (4.2%)
- Cigarette dependence in the past month (2.8%)
- The estimates for current diagnosis were lower than estimates for "ever" diagnosis, meaning whether a child had ever received a diagnosis in his or her lifetime. Suicide, which can result from the interaction of mental disorders and other factors, was the second leading cause of death among adolescents aged 12–17 years in 2010.
A few of our Youth Initiatives and Programming:
A few of our Youth Initiatives and Programming:
For youth ages 10-18, Apply to be on our Youth Council.
For youth ages 10-18, Apply to be on our Youth Council.